The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig: Riddles of Food and Culture

Dentro del libro

Resultados 1-3 de 19

Página 75But why was this tradition preserved and strength- y ened by being written down
as God's law long after the Israelites had become settled farmers? The answer as
I see it is not that the tradition born of pastoralism continued to prevail by mere ...

Página 82More important than all the zoological errors and flights of taxonomic fancy is that
Leviticus correctly identifies the classic domesticated ruminants as the most
efficient source of milk and meats for the ancient Israelites. To the extent that
abstract ...

Página 83At least three other important Middle Eastern civilizations — the Phoenicians,
Egyptians, and Babylonians — were as disturbed by pigs as were the Israelites.
Incidentally, this disposes of the notion that the Israelites banned the pig to "set ...

Acerca del autor (1987)

Marvin Harris is an American anthropologist who was educated at Columbia University, where he spent much of his professional career. Beginning with studies on race relations, he became the leading proponent of cultural materialism, a scientific approach that seeks the causes of human behavior and culture change in survival requirements. His explanations often reduce to factors such as population growth, resource depletion, and protein availability. A controversial figure, Harris is accused of slighting the role of human consciousness and of underestimating the symbolic worlds that humans create. He writes in a style that is accessible to students and the general public, however, and his books have been used widely as college texts.